Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Tin Bucket Drum: Questions with Neil Coppen
- Selection of images from various performances
- Tin Bucket Drum: the play script
- Note on staging
- Scene 1 A celebration
- Scene 2 The journey
- Scene 3 Mkhulu's welcome
- Scene 4 A child is born
- Scene 5 Awakening
- Scene 6 Sermon
- Scene 7 Silent confinement
- Scene 8 Mkhulu's story
- Scene 9 Integration
- Scene 10 Problem child
- Scene 11 Legacy
- Scene 12 Rehabilitation
- Scene 13 Community service
- Scene 14 Revolution
- Scene 15 Lullaby
Scene 10 - Problem child
from Tin Bucket Drum: the play script
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2018
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Tin Bucket Drum: Questions with Neil Coppen
- Selection of images from various performances
- Tin Bucket Drum: the play script
- Note on staging
- Scene 1 A celebration
- Scene 2 The journey
- Scene 3 Mkhulu's welcome
- Scene 4 A child is born
- Scene 5 Awakening
- Scene 6 Sermon
- Scene 7 Silent confinement
- Scene 8 Mkhulu's story
- Scene 9 Integration
- Scene 10 Problem child
- Scene 11 Legacy
- Scene 12 Rehabilitation
- Scene 13 Community service
- Scene 14 Revolution
- Scene 15 Lullaby
Summary
A djembe drum links the following montage.
NARRATOR: And so, the following day, they paid an urgent visit to the town doctor, who, after pressing his stethoscope to the Little Drummer Girl's chest …
NARRATOR assumes role of the doctor, holding an imaginary stethoscope to the child's heart. Drums pound the heart beat (three times).
… chased them away, frightened.
She moves to another point on the stage and, using an upturned bucket as a seat, becomes the SANGOMA [traditional healer].
The redundant Sangoma on the outskirts of the town couldn't help much either …
SANGOMA [frightened, swats away the spirits that surround him]: Ai, there is no muthi to cure this! She is born with the song of the ancestors, making the spirits restless, waking the ghosts with the beating of her heart. She is a danger to the silence, making me see things I long to see but am forbidden to. You must take her away for your own safety and mine. Hambani [Get out]! Hambani!
The SANGOMA rises, shooing them out of his hut.
NARRATOR: So the girl's mother was left with little option but to send her off on her first day of school and, for a few weeks, it seemed a solution had been found. Miss Khumalo, the headmistress, reported that …
The narrator assumes the role of MISS KHUMALO, scribbling on the desk as though filling in a report card. The PERCUSSIONIST creates the sound of the scribbling pen in time to the teacher's hand movements on the table.
MISS KHUMALO: … the Little Drummer Girl excels in her studies …
She puts an exaggerated full stop, which is punctuated by the PERCUSSIONIST.
… hungry for every ounce of knowledge her teacher has to offer.
Marks another full stop.
She has earned no noise demerits and there have been no reports of rhythmic disturbances!
She adds an exclamation mark, with percussive accompaniment.
NARRATOR: That was before the terrible twins, two of her classmates, grew jealous of the attention the teacher devoted to the new pupil.
An ominous drumming starts. The NARRATOR assumes the character of the disgruntled TWINS, sitting on the front of the table, arms folded sulkily.
Information
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- Information
- Tin Bucket Drum , pp. 27 - 30Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2016
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